Always You
by sherbertglasses
Summary: Twelve/Clara: episode tag for 8x04: 'Listen'


When Clara returned to her flat she found the Doctor sitting on her bed, the TARDIS jamming the door again. Her first thought was one of terror. _Please don't ask why I didn't spend the night here_, she thought. It's silly to be afraid of him finding out, she tells herself. He knew she'd been on a date and he'd made it clear that he didn't want to be her boyfriend. But no, that wasn't quite it, was it.

He was staring at her. "I know it was you," he says. "When I was a child, scared and alone in that barn behind the boys home on Gallifrey. So, so long ago. Before I'd even made my first friend."

"Doctor, I-"

"No, please let me finish," he said as he stood, coming ever closer. "I know I was acting mad today"

"Just a bit," she said with a teasing smile.

"Ever since that night I've believed that there was always something with me, hiding in the dark and I've been looking for it. But I was never looking for a monster. I was looking for an angel. A guardian angel. But I was looking in the wrong place. I was looking in the dark when I should have been looking in the light. Because here you are. Shining. You've been watching over me through all my lives and I never even knew. Shining... you are shining," he said confused. "Why have you got that glow about you?"

"What?" Clara was still entranced, heart in her throat from his speech. It took a moment for her brain to catch up.

"And your bed's still made," he added half dashing back to it. He pointed to her. "You're wearing the same clothes. You-"

Clara buried her face in her hands. "Yes! I slept with Danny."

"Who the hell is Danny?" He was jealous now, she could tell. As if he had any right to be.

"The man I had a date with last night," she said as if it should be obvious. Because it should be seeing how he was pressing her for information last night.

She saw as the fight left him. His shoulders slumped slightly and his face fell. "I guess the date went well then," he said awkwardly and forced a smile.

"I'm really wishing I hadn't right now," she said quietly.

"Why" The damn idiot seemed to genuinely not know.

"Because of everything you just said!" She was getting a little annoyed now. The push and pull with this new Doctor confused her, made her heart hurt. "It was all rather... romantic."

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "I meant it to be," he said quickly, looking away from her, hands clasped behind his back as if trying to retain plausible deniability for saying that out loud.

"Doctor, ever since you regenerated," she started. He closed his eyes as if bracing for something. "It's like you've put this wall up, like you're trying to push me away. One of the many echos of me was Gallifreyan so I know how regeneration works. If you ever had feelings for me, I know you still have them."

"But you don't," he snapped involuntary.

Clara was shocked. "Is that it? Is that really it?! You think because you have an older face I can't love you anymore, so you're trying to reject me before I can reject you?" She stomped forward and punched him on the arm, "You moron!"

"You've never said that before," he said, shocked and rubbing his arm.

"I've called you a moron plenty of times."

"No, that you loved me. You've never said that before."

Clara hadn't even realized that she said it, but she had and she was embarrassed. "Well... I do. And if you think a few wrinkles and some snow on the roof is gonna change that, you're stupid. Tell me the regeneration hasn't changed you so much that you don't feel the same. Or did you ever?"

"Of course I do. Since Victorian London. No, longer. Since that night in the barn." He took her hand in one of his and brought the other up to her face. "You're my guardian angel. How could I not?" Slowly, as if he feared any moment she might pull back, he leaned down to kiss her. It was soft and sweet and it made Clara's heart speed up a hundred kilometers an hour. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened it. When they pulled apart, foreheads together, they were silent, just listening to each other's breath. Then the Doctor said, "What about Danny?"

"He'll be alright. It was one bad date and one night in bed. I think we both knew it couldn't work out. Kept saying the wrong thing to each other." Silence again but they still held each other, then Clara remembered. "I have to get ready for work."

"No you don't," said the Doctor. "Time machine."

"No, I really do." She pulled away and patted his chest. "Don't trust you to land on time. But that box better be outside the school when I get out. You owe me a romantic evening."

"I'll spend the day picking just right place." He got back in the TARDIS and faded away.

_Yeah_, Clara thought, _that kiss was better than anything I did with Danny._


End file.
